The route from D to C is one-way only (you can not move from C to D). All compass spins on this stage are random. B to C is 30%, B to E is 70% (according to Japanese wiki [[1]]). Keep trying if you're getting detoured to the maelstrom. Do note that F has heavy cruisers and the boss node has a battleship.

After playing this stage once, you may notice that standard aircraft carriers kind of hurt. For now, your only countermeasures are farming for heavy cruisers at 1-3/this stage and training them, crafting battleships and using them to push through with their firepower and armor, or building your own aircraft carrier and equipping fighters of your own to shoot down enemy aircraft. If you have Isuzu, getting her to level 12 and Remodeling her gives a huge boost to Anti-Air which also helps. Note that getting an aircraft carrier will also help to complete the Akagi quest (A11 and B10).

Guaranteed if the fleet contains at least a CVL, AV, LHA or CAV AND the fleet does not meet the requirements to off route to G.

This is the first map which has branching rules, the first map with a boss HP bar requiring multiple completions, and the first map where you can face Flagship and Elite enemies. The map is filled with only submarines unless your fleet composition is wrong and you go off-course.

You are required to sink the boss submarine 4 times to clear the map.

Since it is an Extra Operation, clearing this map is not required to continue onto World 2.

Clearing this map rewards a Medal and 75 ranking points. At the start of each month, the boss HP bar will reset, allowing the rewards to be obtained again (if it doesn't reset, refresh the game, or get a new API link if you're using one).

The enemies on the map are scaled to your HQ level, which means that the enemies will rank up when you hit a certain HQ level. Nodes power up at levels 40 and 80.

It's possible to replace the CVL with a CAV or AV, but it's not advisable to do so without good equipment. An AV can equip Depth Charges, a CAV has better armor and can equip Seaplane Bombers to hit subs, but neither of them can equip Saiun to prevent the occasional Red T.

Putting Sonar and Depth Charge on same ship will get 15% ASW power bonus (doesn't stack, one depth charge and sonars is the usual setup).

Recommended composition: 3 OASW DD 1 CVL/AV/LHA. This setup trades the BBV for a DD reducing the resource consumption and disabling the second shelling phase, but also allows preemptive attacks that disable the enemy subs before they attack, working as if it was an extra shelling phase. You can swap up to 2 DDs for CLs. Using CTs or CLTs is also possible.

Drop CVL/AV can be used (that is, dropped level 1 ships), up to two times without resupplying. Generally, this doesn't affect boss, boss S rank, and bucket rates. The cost is around 50 fuel and ammo for full sortie. More drop ships (DD and CL) also can be used, reducing resource consumption even further (Satsuki Kai Ni and 3 drop ships will cost around 10 fuel and ammo per full sortie); however, this will affect boss and boss kill rates (possibly down to 50%).

CVL/AV/LHA range can be increased to medium/long by using OTO/SCAMP (will attack first in the first shelling phase after the OASW phase).

(N): secondary equipment, can't trigger ASW attacks, but contributes using type N formula when main equipment is used

N (M): main equipment, can trigger ASW attacks with Type N formula; however, can be secondary when another main equipment is used, then contributes with Type M formula (Hayasui Kai case when using Bomber + Sonar combination)

If you reach Node N again after clearing the map, you will only be rewarded with either 50, 70, or 100 fuel, ammo, steel, or bauxite until the bar is reset on the 1st day of a new month.

Because Node N (the node after node B and D) is the Ending Huge Resource Node, you may advance to the node with a Heavy Damaged Ship after fighting the enemy fleet in node B or D, as you won't be facing any enemies in node N. Furthermore, you can use a repair team on the flagship and proceed after node B or D even if the flagship is heavily damaged, the repair team won't be consumed.

Using 3 CL 3 DD or 4 CL 2 DD will take you to node C.

Using BBV, CA, CVL will take you to node C or K, which will take you to a route where there are very difficult enemies such as Flagship Wo-class, Flagship Ru-class waiting for you. Line Ahead Submarines also exist.

Node A is an empty node. No Battle.

Node E is Submarine Node with Echelon formation. Because this node is so minor in nature, bringing Anti-Submarine equipments is not required.

Double-arrow nodes (D, F, L) are Aerial battle nodes like those in the Summer 2014 Event. On these nodes, only two Aerial Combat phases occur during day battle. Only CV/CVL participate here unless night battle is pursued (Originally ill-advised but an April 23, 2015 update promised to make this more feasible; its degree is still unknown)

Node E is a good place for Players above Level 80 HQ to do their Daily Quest Bd8 (Sink 6 Submarines) and Weekly Quest Bw5 (Sink 15 Submarines).

Recommended Fleet Compositions:

A - E - G - F - B - N (Huge Resource Node)

1 CL + 5 DD (Ensures movement from Node G to F). Since only CV/CVL participate in node F's aerial battle, the rank for this node will usually be D (i.e.,a loss). This can be avoided by pursuing night battle but enemy evasion is increased for aerial battle nodes and there is the risk of a ship receiving great damage before the final battle node B (which has some rare drops if cleared with a S rank). Therefore, it is usually better to just accept the defeat on node F. One should still keep their sortie ratio in mind when doing this (>75% for event participation), though running 1-1 a couple of times should be enough to return to a 'safe' ratio.

4 DD + ( 2 AV or 1 CAV + 1 LHA or 1 CL + 1 AV or 1 CAV + 1 AV or 1 CL+ 1 AO) (Has a chance to go from Node G to K. The advantage with this composition is the possibility of a B rank at Node F.) (Using Akitsushima could also help meet node J's LoS requirement and thus give a higher chance at finishing the run even if one is diverted away from the AEGFBN route)